Fabric23

Fabric;
2005

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Ivan the Terrible is almost too perfect a poster boy for the current state
of electrowhatever, what with his long black hair and cigarette ash beard
and general air of swarthy French sleaziness. As one half of Black Strobe,
he forced EBM (aka "industrial disco," aka "stuff my goth ex liked") and
electro to fuck, and then fed the baby steroids in its milk. (In other
words, it's electro. But, like, really fucking loud and ugly electro.) As a
DJ he's defined his strain of electrohouse (better names on a postcard, as
always) as a kind of heads-down, gray surge-- house stripped of the euphoria
or maybe techno with the male equivalent of camel toe. (What is that, frog
eyes?)

Fabric23 doesn't deviate from the plan too broadly, though converts are
quick to hail it as "NEW STYLE FROM IVAN, 16TH NOTE DELICIOUSNESS" in true
shop-blurb style. As my boy Phil noted a few Months in Techno ago, everyone
is worshipping the riff as if they've all grown Troggs haircuts and are
dragging their knuckles down. Ivan does know a bassline when he hears it,
usually in short blurts of boom that occasionally reach out to slap you
awake in case you're nodding off behind the wheel. The whole of the mix
kinda sags, like a hammock filled with rainwater, or a humid fog oppressing
a coastal town in mid-July.

Aswefall's "Ride (Der Schmeisser Lovelysplinter Remix)" (jesus guys, edit)
is fetid with low end, and Ada's remix of Booka Shade's "Vertigo Vs. Cha!"
is thick and gloopy in the now accepted Areal style. Michael Mayer's
"Heiden" fills the requisite Kompakt spot on a 2005 mix, though I'm
surprised he went with the clicking melodies of DJ Koze's "The Geklöppel
Continues" rather than the sewer-funk of the expected "Brutalga Square".
Towards the end he even throws in the Kills' "No Wow", which isn't quite as
incongruous as it may appear. Sandwiched between the colonoscopic grumble of
Tekel's "Snake Tartare" (title!) and the matte techno of Konrad Black's
"Jefferson and Braeside", the Kills track might as well be any of the other
is-it-techno-that-wants-to-be-rock-or-vice-versa? that makes up the bulk of
the mix.

Fabric23 is smoking, yes, but it's also kind of a bummer. I am all for dance
music which steals a little a little swagger from cock rock. Maybe not all
the time, mind you, but it's a healthy corrective against the twin black
holes of good taste and excessive abstraction. Unfortunately, it's a weird
kind of rock purism Smagghe leans on, not all that different from the
excessive abstraction of minimal techno when it comes right down to, just
with a biker's build instead of a heroin addict's. Is one anthem too much to
ask Ivan? Or am I missing the point?